TN Cities - Trichy
Trichy or Tiruchirapalli, is the the fourth largest city in TN with a population nudging 1 million. It is also the most centrally located large city of Tamilnadu. It has excellent road connections, with more than a couple of National Highways and good rail connections to Chennai and Madurai and after BG conversion, to places north too. The airport is international (Srilanka and Sharjah) and it has the distinction of getting inernational flights even before Coimbatore got one.
Trichy is a relatively smaller city with a large rural hinterland. It was converted to Municipal corporation pretty recently after merger of Srirangam and other places to Trichy municipality. Trichy has lot of historical significance although it is overshadowed by Madurai or Thanjavur.
Economically, Trichy has become an important industrial centre mainly because of BHEL boiler plant (used in Thermal Power stations). Along with its ancillary industries, this contributes some 6000 crores to the industrial output of Trichy. Apart from this, the military has a factory (HAPP) and southern railway has its workshop in Golden Rock. Not much industrialisation from the private sector is seen in Trichy. It is an important trading and economic centre in the central region of Tamilnadu. Inspite of this, in terms of affluence, it is overshadowed by Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, even perhaps Tiruppur and Erode cities.
Trichy is an important education centre. NIT (Formerly REC) a premier engineering institute in India, is the pride of Trichy. This college along with the central government PSU BHEL, gives a somewhat cosmopolitan look to the city. Bharathidasan University is a reputed university and its management institute, BIM is TamilNadu's version of IIM. A medical college was missing here for a long time but with the opening of KAP medical college, that gap has been filled now. Trichy also has a law college and number of private colleges, some of which are of very good repute.
Trichy is also an important tourist place with three major temples. The most obvious thing is the 83 metre high famous Rock-fort with the Uchipillayar temple on top. A rocky outcrop sorrounded by plains with views of Cauvery river and Srirangam gopurams, it is the finest viewpoint in Trichy. The road leading to the rock-fort (NSB) is also the main shopping centre of the city and is very lively. The island town of Srirangam, now part of Trichy corporation, separated from it by the rivers Cauvery and Kollidam, is a more important tourist / pilgrimage centre. It houses the Sriranganatha Swamy temple, the most important temple for the Vaishnavites of Tamil Nadu, a huge temple that boasts of the tallest temple gopuram (Tower) in the country. Its a bit commercialised though with expectations of money by the priests and sundry characters in the temple campus. With the temple and the river cauvery, Srirangam is becoming a sort of pensioners paradise in Tamil Nadu. The temple of Jambukeshwara on the way to Srirangam is also an important shiva temple. Apart from the temples, we have, Kallanai, the 2000 year old dam on the Cauvery river and a couple of other dam spots nearby. The city also has got good hotels for all budgets and the eating places around the bus stand are very good.
From what I have seen, the city looked neat and green with very good city transport provided by the buses. The roads were good and many National Highways (NH 45, NH 45B, NH 67) criss-cross the city. With good colleges and a decent industrial base provided by BHEL, it has the potential to become another Coimbatore with good government support. As usual, I will suggest a CMDA style development authority to plan for proper growth of the city. Focussing on ITES will also help. On a longer term, it is possible to develop the Trichy - Thanjavur belt as an urban corridor with some imaginative thinking. The 55 km road is already seeing industrial and institutional developmet on both sides of the road for a large part.
Trichy is a relatively smaller city with a large rural hinterland. It was converted to Municipal corporation pretty recently after merger of Srirangam and other places to Trichy municipality. Trichy has lot of historical significance although it is overshadowed by Madurai or Thanjavur.
Economically, Trichy has become an important industrial centre mainly because of BHEL boiler plant (used in Thermal Power stations). Along with its ancillary industries, this contributes some 6000 crores to the industrial output of Trichy. Apart from this, the military has a factory (HAPP) and southern railway has its workshop in Golden Rock. Not much industrialisation from the private sector is seen in Trichy. It is an important trading and economic centre in the central region of Tamilnadu. Inspite of this, in terms of affluence, it is overshadowed by Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, even perhaps Tiruppur and Erode cities.
Trichy is an important education centre. NIT (Formerly REC) a premier engineering institute in India, is the pride of Trichy. This college along with the central government PSU BHEL, gives a somewhat cosmopolitan look to the city. Bharathidasan University is a reputed university and its management institute, BIM is TamilNadu's version of IIM. A medical college was missing here for a long time but with the opening of KAP medical college, that gap has been filled now. Trichy also has a law college and number of private colleges, some of which are of very good repute.
Trichy is also an important tourist place with three major temples. The most obvious thing is the 83 metre high famous Rock-fort with the Uchipillayar temple on top. A rocky outcrop sorrounded by plains with views of Cauvery river and Srirangam gopurams, it is the finest viewpoint in Trichy. The road leading to the rock-fort (NSB) is also the main shopping centre of the city and is very lively. The island town of Srirangam, now part of Trichy corporation, separated from it by the rivers Cauvery and Kollidam, is a more important tourist / pilgrimage centre. It houses the Sriranganatha Swamy temple, the most important temple for the Vaishnavites of Tamil Nadu, a huge temple that boasts of the tallest temple gopuram (Tower) in the country. Its a bit commercialised though with expectations of money by the priests and sundry characters in the temple campus. With the temple and the river cauvery, Srirangam is becoming a sort of pensioners paradise in Tamil Nadu. The temple of Jambukeshwara on the way to Srirangam is also an important shiva temple. Apart from the temples, we have, Kallanai, the 2000 year old dam on the Cauvery river and a couple of other dam spots nearby. The city also has got good hotels for all budgets and the eating places around the bus stand are very good.
From what I have seen, the city looked neat and green with very good city transport provided by the buses. The roads were good and many National Highways (NH 45, NH 45B, NH 67) criss-cross the city. With good colleges and a decent industrial base provided by BHEL, it has the potential to become another Coimbatore with good government support. As usual, I will suggest a CMDA style development authority to plan for proper growth of the city. Focussing on ITES will also help. On a longer term, it is possible to develop the Trichy - Thanjavur belt as an urban corridor with some imaginative thinking. The 55 km road is already seeing industrial and institutional developmet on both sides of the road for a large part.
posted by SLN @ 12:06 PM
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